James Monroe

Section 6: Governor Monroe

Section 7: The Louisiana Purchase, page 2

page 1 of 2

Thomas
Jefferson never asked Monroe to be Envoy Extraordinary to
France; instead, he merely sent his protégé a note informing him that
Monroe had already been nominated to the position. He was to assist
Robert Livingston in his quest to purchase a significant port on
the Mississippi River, which was at the time largely controlled
by the French government. Jefferson had proceeded with the appointment
because the right to use New Orleans as a port of deposit had been
revoked, causing outrage throughout the American West. Jefferson
needed the problem to go away, and so he turned to Monroe in January
1803, asking for "a temporary sacrifice to prevent the greatest
of all evils in the present prosperous tide of our affairs." Jefferson
knew that Monroe could never turn down such a request. By January
11, the Senate confirmed Monroe and he was on his way. To pay his
way, Monroe sold his plates and china to Madison.

This second journey to France was markedly different than
his first, for he departed with the full backing and good graces
of the administration–an administration he deeply admired. The
trip became increasingly complicated, as Monroe was also prepared
to work with England or Spain to gain the access the U.S. required, alliances
which France found troublesome and likely helped push his case
in Paris. Nevertheless, after weeks of legislative wrangling, Monroe
departed on March 2 from New York with authorization to spend fifty
million francs, just a little over nine million dollars, purchasing
as much of New Orleans and Florida as France was willing to sell.

Much of the work had been completed before Monroe even arrived
in Europe–in fact, far more work than had originally been proposed.
On April 11, the French Foreign Minister had asked Livingston whether
the U.S. would be interested in purchasing the all of Louisiana.
Livingston had protested that America only wanted New Orleans,
but the French pointed out that without a port, the rest of the
territory was useless to France. Livingston offered twenty million
livres, but Minister Talleyrand demurred. Later, it turned out that Napoleon himself
had ordered the sale. Finally, the French government and the two
American ministers settled on a price of sixty million francs,
plus another twenty million to settle claims against the land.
At a dinner party on May 1, the final terms were agreed upon. Monroe
and Livingston agreed to the sale, even though the cost exceeded
their charge–believing rightly so that Jefferson would still jump
at the opportunity to double the size of the United States. Despite
the fact that no one really knew how large Louisiana was–for instance,
no one was sure whether it included Western Florida–Monroe and
Livingston recognized it was huge.

The news was greeted with amazing excitement in America–the threat
of foreign incursions had been removed and America had endless
tracts of land now to expand. The new land allowed for an "empire
of liberty." Jefferson was thrilled. The act also catapulted Monroe
was some prominence to the highest levels of the nation's leaders–many
now expected it would only be a matter of time before the former
governor of Virginia became president.

Not surprisingly, Monroe's "temporary" assignment overseas soon
turned into a more permanent one. From 1803 to 1807, he served
as minister to Britain–perhaps the highest post in the diplomatic
corps. His long- standing animosity towards the crown was tempered
by the warm reception he found there. He continued the work of
his predecessors, hammering out treaties involving commercial alliances
and entertaining with the British court. In 1806, he successfully
negotiated a new treaty that relaxed trade restrictions between
the two countries–but since it included no provisions dealing with
the impressment of seamen by the British, Jefferson refused to
ask for the treaty's ratification. Monroe also spent several aggravating
months in 1805 trying to convince Spain that the Louisiana Purchase
included West Florida and the surrounding lands–all to no avail.

When his tour in Britain ended, he returned to Virginia
and still smarting from the rejection of his treaty (Monroe felt
that he had gotten the best deal possible at the time), he ran
a protest campaign against his friend Madison for the presidency
in 1808–blaming Madison for the treaty's rejection. Monroe won
little support and Madison went on to the President's House.